A good understanding of tendons is a the reason why you don't need to pound on people in Sanchin.

It has been said to me by more than one senior Uechi practitioner that you can tell how long someone has been training Uechi by the focus in their tendons.

So when checking a student's iron shirt are you checking the focus of the tendons/muscles around the joints? The wrist, the lateral and medial sides of the elbows, the top of the calf, the top of the knee, the glutes, the floating rib area and for advanced students the neck, the base of the sternum, the kidney area . These are key points to feel for focus. Feel...not hit.

Just look at Gushi and other uechi-ka of that generation. Look at the photos below and see the development.

Most have said that they do not lift weights. They train sanchin and the jars. This is a very different look than what we think of as "strong" today.

You know I'm always wishing I was more lean than not. Heather's reading the book "The Okinawa Program" right now - it talks about their culture of food. One line she brought to my attention that really has stuck with me is:
"Treat food as medicine for your body."

Which means you only eat what the body requires to be happy and healthy. In doing so you must make and enjoy food that also tastes good...in moderation.

We westerners tend to be bad at moderation (myself included.)

"Treat food as medicine for your body."

Take too much of a good medicine and you lose the good effects because of the terrible side-effects of the overdose. Food works in much the same way.

Ligaments are the strong tissues that connect a bone to another bone. Ligaments are very important in joint stability, by holding the bones in a joint together.

Excessive tension on a ligament will cause injury, also known as a sprain: A grade 1 sprain is a stretch injury to the ligament, without damage to its structure. These injuries typically heal rather quickly, with little long-term problems. A grade 2 sprain involves microscopic damage to the ligament, but the ligament remains structurally intact. These painful injuries will usually heal well, but often the joint needs to be supported while the ligament heals, up to 6 or 8 weeks. A grade 3 sprain involves actual disruption of the ligament, and may render a joint unstable. Depending on the location of the injury, the ligament may or may not heal on its own, and surgery to repair the ligament may be necessary for these injuries.

A ligament is a short band of tough fibrous connective tissue composed mainly of long, stringy collagen fibres. Ligaments connect bones to other bones to form a joint. (They do not connect muscles to bones; that is the function of tendons.) Some ligaments limit the mobility of articulations, or prevent certain movements altogether.

Capsular ligaments are part of the articular capsule that surrounds synovial joints. They act as mechanical reinforments. Extra-capsular ligaments join bones together and provide joint stability.

Ligaments are slightly elastic; under tension, they gradually lengthen. This is one reason why dislocated joints must be set as quickly as possible: if the ligaments lengthen too much, then the joint will be weakened, becoming prone to future dislocations. Athletes, gymnasts and martial artists perform stretching exercises to lengthen their ligaments, making their joints more supple. That is why some people are called double jointed! Not because they have two joints, but because they have strechy ligaments!

It seems that the jury is still out on whether or not estrogen and prgesterone levels in women significantly effect the elasticity of their ligaments. Higher rates of ACL injuries are presently attributed more to the structural differences between women's hip/knee/angle alignment that ligament strength & elasticity.

Now this is only one example of an odd little ligament - but I was totally surprised to discover that the connective tissue actually changed over time...and that some of the changes happened between the first and second decade and the second and third of life. This really helps make the case for avoiding hard conditioning in youth since you can't know where they fall on the developmental scale. And it also speaks to how the body is continually adapting to the stesses placed on it either through developmental changes or activities. There is no reference in the abstract to gender difference but perhaps in the actual article. This also recalls to mind something I've heard before in that you can't really peak in your iron shirt training until you're in your late 30's to early 40's.

This is the anatomical structure:

This is the medical-speak about it from PubMed.

J Bone Joint Surg Br. 1986 Mar;68(2):197-200.

The iliolumbar ligament. A study of its anatomy, development and clinical significance.
by
Luk KD, Ho HC, Leong JC.

The development of the iliolumbar ligament and its anatomy and histology were studied in cadavers from the newborn to the ninth decade. The structure was entirely muscular in the newborn and became ligamentous only from the second decade, being formed by metaplasia from fibres of the quadratus lumborum muscle. By the third decade, the definitive ligament was well formed; degenerative changes were noted in older specimens. The iliolumbar ligament may have an important role in maintaining lumbosacral stability in patients with lumbar disc degeneration, degenerative spondylolisthesis and pelvic obliquity secondary to neuromuscular scoliosis.

RelaxinThis is the hormone that softens ligaments and tissues during pregnancy. The elasticity provides increased flexibility in the joints of the lower back and pelvis in preparation for childbirth.

This is a reason to be very careful when exercising before and just after childbirth. Things will be a bit loose all over the body. Don't do anything new; stick to stuff you know. You can still exercise though. My wife did weight training right up to a week before childbirth, and delivered a 9 pound, 7.5 ounce boy. Vaginally. Without drugs.

Another point about ACL injuries in women... This has a lot to do with the lack of leg development (muscles and ligaments) combined with just plain bad technique (not having the knees point to the toes when you squat). A good weight-training program done with a good coach will cure this. Good karate training will do the same, although it might take a little bit longer. But the same principles apply, as I often point out to my students when I give them lessons in the weight room.

There used to be a great contrast between Bob Hoffman and the York Barbell Company vs. Joe Weider in New Jersey and his line of weights for bodybuilders. Hoffman favored weight training for sport purposes particularly Olympic style weight lifting: press, snatch, clean & jerk. Weight training was advocated for gymnasts, swimmers and runners. Joe Weider advocated weight training for body building purposes, i.e. muscular definition and development for physique contests. The York side advocated full range of motion exercises for tendon and ligament strength as well as muscular development. The Weider side promoted constricted motions that pumped up the body of the muscle.

The York side seems to be more representative of the Eastern philosophy as expressed in the following views of East vs. West:

In general in the West, the tendons are considered to be rope-like extensions of the muscles that do not contract, yet strength exercises are recommended for preventing injury because they increase the stability of the joint. To do this there must be some increased strengthening of tendons and ligaments. In the East, there has traditionally been an emphasis on developing strength and power through natural movements that work the full length of the muscle evenly. The result is a long, smooth muscle that is strong at the muscle belly and the ends of the muscle. This kind of "tendon strength" can generate tremendous power that is not a product of bulging muscles. I will never forget my amazement at the powerful grip of one of my teachers who stood five feet three inches and weighed 120 pounds. At eighty-two, though his arm muscles looked flaccid, he had a grip like iron and could pull me off balance with ease. His strikes, which appeared to be light and weak, penetrated to my bones.

Tom Bisio, A TOOTH FROM THE TIGER'S MOUTH

Come to think of it, perhaps my ability to do full front splits right and left sides in junon tyso derives from doing split style cleans in the Olympic lifts

WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP, IF ANY, OF TENDONS AND LIGAMENTS TO FLEXIBILITY